Current Legal News

Stay current with legal news in Tennessee. This page features the latest news for and about the Tennessee legal community, either produced by the Tennessee Bar Association or collected from news sources.

Maury County’s Election Commission on Monday censured commissioner Lynn C. Nelson of Columbia for voting in the local Republican primary, the Columbia Daily Herald reports. The commission is also asking state officials to consider removing Nelson from office as the vice president of the Maury County Democratic Party. Nelson also served as a Tennessee delegate to the national Democratic Party Convention in 2012. Commissioner Jerry Colley, who voted against the motion to censure, said he believes Nelson did not know a state statute limits voting in a primary to a bona fide member of the sponsoring party or a voter who declares allegiance to that political party.

State and federal officials should simplify the drugs used to execute death-row inmates, giving them a single-drug dosage like those used to euthanize animals or help people commit suicide, a new report by bipartisan, legal think tank The Constitution Project recommends. The report comes amid renewed debate about capital punishment due to the botched execution of an Oklahoma inmate last week, the Wall Street Journal Legal Blog reports.

Every female senator signed a letter to President Barack Obama calling for international sanctions against the terrorist group that abducted more than 200 girls in Nigeria last month, Roll Call reports. Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Maryland. and Susan Collins, R-Maine, led the group of women pressuring the administration to implore the U.N. Security Council to add Islamic militant group Boko Haram to its al-Qaida sanctions list. The Senate passed a resolution by voice vote yesterday afternoon condemning the kidnapping.

Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade and Davidson County Circuit Judge Joe P. Binkley Jr. were honored by the Southeastern Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (SEABOTA) at its annual conference in Nashville, the Administrative Office of the Courts reports. Chief Justice Wade, of Sevier County, was named the organization’s 2014 Appellate Judge of the Year. SEABOTA also gave special recognition and honorary membership to Judge Binkley of Nashville, a long-term and respected trial attorney in Nashville before beginning his career on the bench. The program featured former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson.

Voters went to the polls across Tennessee Tuesday to take part in primary elections, with many judicial and other local offices on the line. Many counties have now posted election results. Here's a list of counties with links to county election commissions across Tennessee.

The lead up to primaries in North Carolina indicate the Supreme Court race in that state is “shaping up to be another high-spending contest with a TV ad blitz at the center of the action,” according to Justice at Stake (JAS). Public records show that one independent group, Justice for All North Carolina, still has $650,000 in its coffers after spending $540,000 on televisions ads in major markets. The ads target incumbent Supreme Court Justice Robin Hudson, who is facing a primary challenge, and allege that she has not been tough on child molesters. Another report from JAS indicates that more than $1 million in total has already been spent in the race. The North Carolina Bar Association has responded with a statement condemning advertising and commentary that unfairly attacks candidates based on the performance of their duties as officers of the court.

Nashville’s News Channel 5 revealed last night that it had obtained a “confidential Republican plan” that outlines a campaign to oust three members of the Tennessee Supreme Court. The plan, put together by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey's office, appears designed to remove the justices to free up seats for new Republican appointees and to increase the likelihood that a Republican attorney general is appointed, the station reports. The document suggests that the justices could be “portrayed as soft on crime and anti-business.” Ramsey also confirmed to the station that he has been presenting a slide show to business leaders to highlight what he sees as "anti-business" court decisions and to encourage them “not to sit on the sidelines." He also confirmed that he has been working with the Republican Attorneys General Association to get funding for the effort. The Tennessean carried a similar story today and questioned why Ramsey is pushing for the justices’ defeat after he worked with them to craft an amendment for the November ballot that changes how Tennessee selects appellate judges. Ramsey maintained there was no contradiction between the two efforts. Both stories included reaction from Lew Conner, a prominent Republican lawyer and former appeals court judge, who called Ramsey's document "an unwarranted, unjustified attack on the independence of the judiciary."

In the waning days of the legislative session, lawmakers defeated a proposal that would have provided $2 million to reduce the backlog of untested rape kits statewide. Senate Republican leader Mark Norris says the proposal was rejected because the legislature wants to know the size of the problem before authorizing money to fix it. He tells the Memphis Daily News that the legislature also is asking localities to explain how their situations came to exist and to offer a credible plan for eliminating backlogs. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is collecting the information and is expected to report to the legislature on its findings. Until then, the state has repurposed $500,000 in federal money to help the city of Memphis work through its backlog.

Chattanooga lawyer Jerry H. Summers has spent 40 years handling criminal defense and civil cases and now shares his experiences in a new book “The Turtle and The Lawyer,” The Chattanoogan.com reports. Summers says he wrote the book to encourage readers that “life is not solely about the successes one achieves but is even more about the failures one survives.” He will be signing copies of the book Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Book Company, 3205 Ringgold Rd. Proceeds will be donated to a number of organizations, including the University of Tennessee College of Law, Special Olympics and the Orange Grove Center.

U.S. District Court Judge Curtis Collier, the senior federal judge in Chattanooga, is taking senior status, the Times Free Press reports. Collier, a native of Arkansas, is a former federal prosecutor. He has served on the bench for 19 years as the first and only black U.S. district judge in eastern Tennessee. According to the paper, those mentioned as replacements include federal Magistrate Susan Lee, attorneys Celeste Creswell, Lee Davis, Leah Gerbitz and Travis McDonough, chief of staff to Mayor Andy Berke.

The University of Memphis Law Review is honoring the law school's top three law review scholars with its "Best Note" Award for articles published this year. Award recipients are Kyle Cummins of Memphis, Everett Hixson of Chattanooga and Emma Redden of Germantown. Cummins is editor-in-chief of the law review. Redden serves as managing editor and Hixson serves as research editor. All three will graduate this month. Cummins will clerk with U.S. District Judge S. Thomas Anderson and then join Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada. Hixson is joining Duncan, Hatcher, Hixson & Fleenor. Redden is going to work for Baker Donelson.

The Knoxville Leadership Foundation is hosting an event on May 22 to honor Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin and raise money for Amachi Knoxville, a mentoring program operated by the foundation for children with incarcerated parents. The dinner will take place at the Orangery from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The annual Legends Event highlights an individual who has had an impact on youth in the community. Tickets are still available.

The American Bar Association has formed a new task force charged with examining the cost of a legal education, how law school is financed, what role student loans play and the impact of overall educational debt. The ABA Task Force on the Financing of Legal Education also will consider current practices in the use of merit scholarships, tuition discounting and need-based aid. Members of the task force include Memphis lawyer Lucian Pera, a partner at Adams and Reese and treasurer of the ABA.

Federal courts librarian Joe Daugherty McClure died Friday (May 2) at the age of 64. A Clarksville native, McClure earned his law degree from the Nashville School of Law and was employed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals as the federal courts’ librarian in Middle Tennessee for 28 years. He also was a member of the Tennessee and Montgomery County bar associations and the Tennessee Library Association. Services were held today with internment at the Smith Cemetery in Big Rock. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Smith Cemetery Maintenance Fund, 270 Big Rock Rd., Big Rock, TN 37023. The Tennessean has more on McClure's life.

The Tennessee Supreme Court suspended Putnam County lawyer Samuel Joseph Harris from the practice of law on May 2 after finding that he failed to respond to the Board of Professional Responsibility regarding a complaint of misconduct. The suspension remains in effect until dissolution or modification by the court. View the BPR notice.

The issue in this slip-and-fall premises liability case is whether the trial court correctly granted summary judgment to the defendants. Petros Goumas (“plaintiff”), the fiancé of the daughter of defendants Jimmy Mayse and wife, Barri Mayse, was staying at the defendants’ house for an extended visit. Plaintiff was working outside in the yard, helping to clear away dead brush and trees from the property, when he stepped on a rock, slipped, fell, and broke his arm. The trial court held that plaintiff presented no proof that the rock (1) was in any way unusual or posed any particular danger, (2) was hidden or concealed, or (3) created any kind of defective or dangerous condition. The court concluded that there was no proof of a known or foreseeable unreasonable risk of injury created by the condition of defendants’ property. Consequently, the court held, as a matter of law, that defendants owed no duty to plaintiff. He appeals. We affirm.

Joshua R. Walker, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, State of Tennessee.

Robert E. Pryor, Jr., Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellees, Felisha Brown and Donald Brown, individually and as parents and next of kin of Silas Brown, deceased.

Judge: SUSANO

This is a medical malpractice action brought against the State of Tennessee 1 and others. The issue as to the appealing State is whether the plaintiffs complied with the pre-suit notice requirements of Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-121 (2012 & Supp. 2013). The State argues that the plaintiffs were required to send the pre-suit notice applicable to their claim against the State to either (1) the Attorney General of Tennessee or an Assistant Attorney General, or (2) the Division of Claims Administration of the State. The Tennessee Claims Commission denied the State’s motion to dismiss, finding (1) no statutory authority requiring that pre-suit notice as to the State be served upon one of the parties alluded to by the State, and (2) that the State received adequate pre-suit notice in this case. We affirm and hold that the plaintiffs complied with Section 121’s pre-suit notice requirements by providing notice to the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, a health care provider, which entity is a division of an agency of the State of Tennessee and also a named defendant in this case.

Sixty days prior to filing his complaint, the plaintiff in this health care liability action sent written notice of his potential claim to each of the health care providers that would be named as defendants. Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-121(a)(1) (2012 & Supp. 2013). The plaintiff served the pre-suit notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, as permitted by statute. Id. § 29-26-121(a)(3)(B). In his subsequent complaint, the plaintiff alleged that he had complied with the statutory requirement of pre-suit notice, id. § 29-26-121(b), but the plaintiff failed to file with the complaint “an affidavit of the party mailing the [pre-suit] notice establishing that the specified notice was timely mailed by certified mail, return receipt requested,” id. § 29-26-121(a)(4). The defendants moved for dismissal of the lawsuit, citing the plaintiff’s failure to file with the complaint an affidavit of the person who had sent the pre-suit notice by certified mail. The defendants did not allege that the lack of the affidavit resulted in prejudice. Instead, the defendants contended that the pre-suit notice statute demands strict compliance with all its requirements and that dismissal is the mandatory remedy for noncompliance. The trial court “reluctantly” agreed with the defendants and dismissed the complaint. The Court of Appeals affirmed but noted the “harsh results” strict compliance produces in cases, such as this one, where no prejudice is alleged. We granted the plaintiff’s application for permission to appeal. We hold that the statutory requirement of an affidavit of the person who sent pre-suit notice by certified mail may be satisfied by substantial compliance. We also hold that the plaintiff substantially complied with the statute. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals affirming the trial court’s dismissal of the complaint is reversed; the complaint is reinstated; and this matter is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.